Chapter 22: 22

 

Transmigrated into Substitute Bride Fu Lang

Chapter 22: 钵仔糕

Bowl Cake1[Put chai ko / Bowl cake /Bowl pudding/Red bean Pudding Cake/ Steamed Rice Cup Cake, usually with Red Beans: is a famous street food. Its chewy texture with flavours of sugar and beans are very attractive to those people who are fond of steamed desserts.]

 

In the days that followed, Chen Xing neither met the two ladies again, nor did he encounter anyone who came to their stall looking for a fight or pick fault with him.

 

After the initial worry, Chen Xing gradually put the matter aside, thinking that if he met the young lady who had taken a beating instead of him again one day, he would definitely thank her properly.

 

This day, when Chen Xing and Qiu Jiu were busy, they suddenly heard the familiar sound of gongs and drums coming from not far away, so everyone subconsciously looked in the direction where the sound was coming from, including Chen Xing.

 

At one glance, Chen Xing saw the two officials who had come to give publicity to everyone last time.

 

The two officials were dressed similarly to the last time, one was carrying a gong and drum while the other was shouting after the sound fell, “Tomorrow at noon, the Lai family will be executed in the street, so all the traders in the street should pay attention and be careful to avoid it.”

 

Chen Xing watched the two official officers give publicity to people as they walked along the street and then gradually disappeared.

 

Chen Xing stared at their backs as they leave, always feeling that there was something weird in there and it was only when he could no longer see their backs completely that he suddenly remembered that something was wrong there, so he asked Qiu Jiu, who was also watching next to him, “Why did they ask the traders to pay attention?”

 

When Qiu Jiu heard Chen Xing ask this, his expression which was still watching the show, froze for a moment and he also showed a confused expression, then shook his head in confusion, looked at Chen Xing and guessed, “I don’t know either. Could it probably be some kind of custom here?”

 

“What custom ah? They were afraid of accidental injury cases!”

 

The sudden insertion of a voice startled both Qiu Jiu and Chen Xing, who were still discussing as they turned their heads to see Fu Gongzi who didn’t know since when he had come over, now looking serious as he stared at the wooden barrel in front of him, obviously still try to decide the food of his choice in his mind.

 

“Fu Gongzi, what would you like to eat today?” Chen Xing saw his face full with a smile and asked, “And what did you mean by what you said just now?”

 

“I’ll just have cold skin noodles today. My mother will take me to a banquet a little later, it’s not good for me to go after I’ve eaten too full.” Fu Gongzi looked at the cold noodles that were still quite a lot left and a look of reluctance to give up was on his face.

 

Chen Xing smiled at this and asked Qiu Jiu to give him the cold skin noodle, while looking at Fu Gongzi wanting to know what he meant by what he had just said just now.

 

Fu Gongzi directed Qiu Jiu to give him more toppings, at the same time, he also continued to finish what he had not finished saying earlier, “Do you know how the Yamen escorts the death penalty prisoners?”

 

Chen Xing shook his head, he had only been here not long ago and his range of activities were limited, how would he know such things?

 

When Fu Gongzi looked at the usually bright and smart little boss, who was showing this confused look at this time, he could not help but smile smugly and explained towards him, “Those people are all escorted from the official’s cells onto the prison carts, after that, go along the main street until they reach the place where the executions are carried out.”

 

Fu Gongzi took the bowl that Qiu Jiu handed to him, inhaled it, seemingly satisfied with the smell, and continued to say, “By the way, on the way to the execution site, as long as there is no prisoner robbery or trying to break the prisoner out, the officials usually don’t care what happens.”

 

Hearing this, Chen Xing’s mind flashed, thinking of certain images he had once seen on television, as if he understood what he meant.

 

Just as expected, Fu Gongzi continued, “If the person does not attract so much hatred, nothing serious will happen. But those who have made a lot of enemies on a regular basis are bound to have rotten eggs and leaves waiting for them on the road. When there are so many people throwing dirty things, the accuracy of the hit, of course can’t be predicted, it would easily hurt the street vendors next to him, right? That’s why the county magistrate had this reminder.”

 

Hearing this, Chen Xing felt that the present County Magistrate seemed to be quite humane.

 

The thought only crossed Chen Xing’s mind for a moment before he put it behind him, looked at Fu Gongzi in front of him again and thanked him, “Thank you very much Gongzi for your answer.”

 

Fu Gongzi waved his hand to show that there was no need to be polite, picked up his bowl and went to find a seat to eat.

 

Standing in front of the stall, Chen Xing looked at the main street not too far away and Yamen which was not too far away from them. He decided after some hesitation to take a day off tomorrow, lest Lai Shi Ye’s family’s prisoner’s wheel carriage pass by and cause an accident that would affect his stall.

 

Having made up his mind, after closing up his stall, Chen Xing packed up his things all the more thoroughly and even cleaned up the tables and chairs before leaving.

 

When they got back to the Gu residence, Chen Xing had lunch and slept. He looked at the early morning sky after he woke up thinking that he did not need to go to the stall tomorrow, so he decided to go to the kitchen to make something sweet.

 

Chen Xing was not considered as fast, but as he did not make too much, he was able to make a steamed basket of bowl cakes within two hours.

 

When Qiu Jiu saw that there was smoke in the kitchen and came over there, he saw each and every transparent dessert in a small bowl on the kneading board.

 

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Qiu Jiu stared curiously at Chen Xing, who was picking the cake with the bamboo stick in it and asked, “What is this?”

 

Chen Xing used the bamboo stick in his hand to stick the Steamed Rice Cup Cake in from the small bowl and handed it to Qiu Jiu who asked. He smiled as he said, “This is Bowl Cake.”

Qiu Jiu looked at the transparent things and took a curious bite, then his eyes lit up immediately. He gave Chen Xing a thumbs up and said happily, “This is delicious.”

Chen Xing saw Qiu Jiu eat so happily, so his mood also improved. He put the three different flavours on a plate and looked at Qiu Jiu, who had finished one in a couple of seconds, and asked, “What Gu Gongzi is doing right now?”

 

After a moment’s thought, Qiu Jiu replied, “I think he’s writing in his study room.”

 

Chen Xing nodded at him, picked up the tray and was about to leave, but as he was about to leave the kitchen, he thought of something and he pointed with his chin toward the rest of the bowls and said to Qiu Jiu, “I’ve made three flavours, you also try them all ba!”

“Okay, I know.”

 

Only until Chen Xing left, Qiu Jiu looked at the bowls cakes which were still inside the small bowl and the bamboo sticks beside it and said with a soft smile, “The ones for my young master are all already arrange, but I have to do it myself, what a difference in treatment ah.”

 

Unaware that Qiu Jiu was muttering about himself behind his back, Chen Xing picked up the tray and went straight to Gu Lang’s study room’s front door, where he saw Gu Lang standing at the table, sorting out the paper.

 

Chen Xing watched as Gu Lang lowered his eyebrows and stared intently at the object in his hand, those bony hands running over the pages of the book as if it were a painting that would please the eye and heart (warms the heart and delights the eye).

 

As Chen Xing stood there staring blankly at the inside, Gu Lang seemed to notice his movement, lifted his head to look in his direction. His eyes first fell on his slightly dazed face, and then gradually slid down to the tray in his hand.

 

After a few moments, Gu Lang gave him a gentle smile, looked at him and said gently, “Do you have something for me?”

 

It was only at this time, Chen Xing nodded as if he had been suddenly awakened, then looked at Gu Lang inside who was smiling at him, before he stepped in.

 

As Chen Xing came closer, Gu Lang also saw what he was holding, which was three pieces of food skewered with bamboo sticks and had a transparent colour. Thinking of what Chen Xing used to cook, Gu Lang thought that this would be a new kind of food.

Looking at Gu Lang, who seemed to be hesitant, Chen Xing smiled and said, “This is a new food I have made, the bowl cake. I made the red bean one, the green bean one and the grape flavoured one. Try it, I think you will like it.”

 

After saying this, he tried to find a place to put it down so that Gu Lang could take one and try it, but when he looked down, he saw a table full of paper, so he really had no place to put it.

 

Looking at Chen Xing’s not knowing what to do expression, Gu Lang hurriedly put away the paper on the table that was full of words and made an empty space for Chen Xing to put down the things he was holding.

 

Chen Xing put the tray down and let Gu Lang choose the food from the inside. He took a curious glance at the paper next to him and noticed that he could recognise most of the characters on the paper which felt similar to the traditional Chinese characters they used in ancient times.

 

He was taking one of the red bean flavored bowl cakes, Gu Lang liked the smooth and soft flavour of this little thing after one bite. When he saw Chen Xing curiously examining the papers, he stopped eating for a moment, looked at him with deep eyes and asked softly, “You can you read it?”

 

Hearing this sudden voice, Chen Xing was taken aback. When he saw Gu Lang staring at him seriously, Chen Xing, who was still embarrassed by being caught in the act, nodded in embarrassment, “I can read a little.”

 

Looking at the embarrassed Chen Xing, Gu Lang calmly ate the remaining half of the red bean pudding cake in his hand before looking at him and asking, “Do you know what I wrote?”

 

Chen Xing didn’t know why Gu Lang asked this question, but he was a bit confused and said from the content of what he had seen, “I think it’s like a folk stories book2[话本/ Hua ben: printed versions of the prompt-books used by popular storytellers in Song and Yuan times (salient features of huaben stories: use of the vernacular larded with the stock expressions of professional storytellers; liberal admixture of colloquialisms and archaisms; frequent inclusion of rhymed passages, idioms, or poems for narrative or descriptive purposes; a routine preamble before the feature story)].” Although it was not as good as the novels he had seen in modern times, it was not bad in this era.

 

When Gu Lang heard him say this, he nodded and asked in some way that as if he failed to understand, “Yes, it’s a talking book. I remember you said at the beginning that you were not well received in the Chen Residence, so where did you learn to read?”

 

Chen Xing was flustered by his question and looked at him with a slightly confused look, muttering, “I… I learned from others when I saw them learn about it, so I know a few words.”

 

Gu Lang looked at Chen Xing who was obviously not telling the truth, the corners of his mouth raised lightly, slightly lowered his eyebrows as he picked another green bean flavored bowl cake and ate it. He suddenly changed the subject, “I heard Qiu Jiu say that tomorrow the Lai family will be beheaded.”

 

When he saw that Gu Lang no longer brought up what happened just now, Chen Xing nodded his head along with the change of topic, even though he didn’t know why, “Hn, that’s right.”

 

“Then what is your plan for tomorrow?”

 

When Chen Xing heard Gu Lang ask this question, he didn’t understand why he asked it. He looked towards Gu Lang and saw that Gu Lang’s head was hanging low, his long eyelashes covering his eyebrows, so he couldn’t see the emotions behind it.

 

Shortly after that, Gu Lang raised his head, his dark eyes staring fixedly at him, as if he was hiding a lot of things inside. He then asked him softly, “Don’t you want to go and see all the fuss (thrilling sight) that people are talking about?”

 

1[Put chai ko / Bowl cake /Bowl pudding/Red bean Pudding Cake/ Steamed Rice Cup Cake, usually with Red Beans: is a famous street food. Its chewy texture with flavours of sugar and beans are very attractive to those people who are fond of steamed desserts.]2[话本/ Hua ben: printed versions of the prompt-books used by popular storytellers in Song and Yuan times (salient features of huaben stories: use of the vernacular larded with the stock expressions of professional storytellers; liberal admixture of colloquialisms and archaisms; frequent inclusion of rhymed passages, idioms, or poems for narrative or descriptive purposes; a routine preamble before the feature story)]

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